Day: March 10, 2018

No movement on the new BB coaching hire yet…it may be a long while until that is announced and the longer the better I believe. This is a once in a career situation for an AD and will, most probably be the defining moment of Heather Lykes’ career to date..

First off she has to wrap up this pissing contest as soon as possible. All this creates is some more negative publicity for the program – she doesn’t have to cave on the buyout amount, but she needs to keep her trap shut and let the other side blow off steam. Just get the deal done, shut the barn door and move forward.

“Pitt doesn’t need to hire a coach at this point. It needs to hire a plan,” said Mike DeCourcy, a longtime college basketball writer for the Sporting News. “Whoever you bring in, I don’t care what his record is, I don’t care who is recommending him. That matters to me less than ‘OK, how are you going to do this?’ ‘Oh, we’re going to go out and recruit the best players.’ Oh, good for you.

No, you’re not. What is your plan to get this better? The resume is important because it says what you’ve done, but what really matters at Pitt’s juncture is how are you going to do this? Because there is no obvious answer to this.”

I don’t know about you all but I get sick and tired of people in sports who constantly refer to what they do as some sort of war actions – when nothing could be farther from the truth. Yes, I know this is picky and based on my professional experiences but still – it rubs me the wrong way. Here is a unsigned letter to PSN from an unknown “coaches’ wife” that has Pittsburgh sports fans’ collective tongues wagging. I disagree with it almost 100% but because it strokes Pittsburghers’ ego in the most obvious manner some fans love it…

Here a bit from it:

Give more credit to the athletes and coaches in this town who show up every day and compete at the highest level regardless of what their record is or what you’re saying about them. Recognize the fact that they’ve spent the entire year in a foxhole together, growing along the way. There are more lessons to be learned in losing than in winning. Imagine how great we could be if we allowed our teams to learn these lessons and get better because of it.

Color me completely unimpressed and just a little disgusted. What she see fails to realize is that Pittsburghers and other Western PA sports fans have been actually working for ages in steel mills, coal mines and other damned hard jobs – showing up every day also – for a hell of a lot less money than her husband does while he coaches players in a friggin’ game. They have done that to put some food on the table, some clothes on the backs of their kids and maybe, just maybe, a new pair of shoes or two every year. Oh, and an annual trip to Kennywood for recreation.

They send their kids to public schools and pray like the dickens their sons or daughters may get a scholarship to attend college – many being the first in the extended family to do so.

That is the real gist of Pittsburghers’ history and the current generation of sports fans in WPA are but one, maybe two, generations removed from those who worked those shitty and dangerous jobs to keep their families from the poor house.

So spare me if you have to pack up and move yet again… after making hundreds of thousands of dollars in your short stay in the city. By the way – I moved my family 13 times in 30 years for a hell of a lot less money than hubby makes – try that on for size.

Then there is this:

To every Pittsburgh sports fan out there who has used their voice to spread negativity, it is time to realize that the only thing standing in your way of achieving the greatness you so strongly desire for your city and your team…is yourself.

You aint fooling this guy Sister – you flit your eyelashes and spew out some tripe that completely turns the pointed finger around and blames vocal sports fans for your husband’s shortcomings. Way to go! Way to teach your kids that personal responsibility for a job NOT well done couldn’t possibly lie on Daddy’s shoulders but instead is the fault of those nasty Pittsburgh sports fans who had the audacity to call out your husband on his professional failings.

“Imagine how great we could be if we allowed our teams to learn these lessons and get better because of it.”

How about this – let parents, teachers and positive role models be the ones who teach Pittsburghers’ children lessons in how to live properly – your husband’s sole job was to create winning teams so that fans can remove themselves from the harsh realities of life for a few hours and revel in successes they might not personally be experiencing – that’s it and that is the extent of your man’s impact here. It isn’t to pretend to be some sort of Master Life Coach.

Here’s my suggestion – take the boatload of money your husband earned and was paid for by those harder working Pittsburghers and flit off to some other, more genteel, city preferably down south where disgruntled sports fans will say “Well, bless his heart” when your husband coaches poorly and gets fired instead of “You suck – get the hell out of here.” which Pittsburghers apparently just did.

I’ll take honesty over false illusions any day lady, especially when it comes to an overpaid coach whose professional efforts revolve around ‘working’ with even more severely overpaid people playing a friggin’ sport.